Rearview Mirror
by Faerax
Summary: After a New Year's party, Duke disappears from Haven.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Rearview Mirror

Authors: Faerax

Series: Without a name as of yet – Follows "The Orange Kitten" & "Christmas in (Haven) Maine"

Spoilers: Haven season 1

Setting: Haven post-season 1, not including Season 2

Disclaimer: Duke, Audrey, and Nathan belong to Steven King/the Syfy channel.

Summary: After a New Year's party, Duke disappears from Haven.

Authors' notes:

i. Sequel to Christmas in (Haven) Maine written by Neoxphile and myself. You don't need to read it to understand the events in this story.

ii. Some of the dialogue in Haven suggests that season one took place in 2008 despite airing in 2010, so Neoxphile and I went with that. Therefore, this story takes place the winter following season one.

Author's Warning: I am not nearly as good as neoxphile at actually updating things. I do not promise regular updates, because at this time, only about 1/3 to ½ of the story is actually written (some big honking 600 page story involving rewriting last season's episodes and real life got in the way). I'm not even going to promise to finish it, because it seems to me that the authors that promise to finish all their stories are invariably the ones that leave us hanging, lol. If you like it, thank neoxphile, who has kindly agreed to beta this and is politely ragging on me to finish it.

Objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are. – Meatloaf

Audrey:

December 31st, 2008

Duke had outdone himself this time. The Grey Gull was awash in a constellation of stars, all hanging from the ceiling. They glittered brightly, and mimicked real constellations, according to Vince. Someone had done a lot of work hanging the black velvet on the rafters, and then planning the placement of the small lights that peeked through it. The illusion was complemented by the dim lighting of the restaurant, allowing you to believe that that the sky was clear and you could see all the way to the end of the universe.

I leaned back against one of the pillars holding up the firmament. Vince continued, "I thought Margie was going to make mincemeat out of him but he did most of the work himself. I think, though, that the Garricks helped him out. Brooke and Michael appreciate that Duke gave their mother a job when most of the town was against her. They did a bang up job, didn't they?"

"It's beautiful, Vince, because it kept him out of my office and away from my books," Margie stated, coming up behind him. "How that man does math is a mystery. Somehow it's always right, but why he can't do simple accounting is beyond me. You'd think…, nah never mind."

I knew what Margie was politely not saying. You'd think with all of the smuggling he'd be good at it or be dead. However, I doubt that money from those funds would be documented in books, and that Duke would have maintained a more creative accounting system for goods of questionable legality. I suspected that old habits die hard, though, and that now that he had gone legit, he still hasn't gotten used to writing everything down in a way comprehensible to Margie.

Janice, who seemed to have been promoted to commander in chief of the Carpenter's Knot Hotel, didn't have to deal with Duke interfering with her books. He'd claimed it would be quite some time before he went back to the island where he was nearly wendigo lunch. He'd given her carte blanche to do whatever, and just tell him about any major expenditures later. I also had a feeling this left Margie jealous of Janice's freedom. Duke was much more involved in running the Gull.

"Well, Margie, Nathan thinks that Duke will make a break for freedom as soon as his boat is fixed and he'll temporarily be out of your books," Vince offered helpfully.

Nathan and Duke had been living together since Christmas Eve, when we'd all found out Duke's boat, Cape Rouge, had a repair job fail and had partially sunk. Even now, we could see her grounded out behind the restaurant. The first two days, the boys had behaved themselves. By the fifth day, Nathan was putting in extra hours to avoid Duke, and Duke was finding excuses to be about town when Nathan did come home. I supposed it was good it hadn't come to blows yet. Because I was frequently in Nathan's company, I'd seen little of Duke after day 3. I could only go by Nathan's report that Duke was becoming increasingly unpleasant as a house guest.

I turned to Margie. "Do you really think he'll leave?"

Margie grimaced, "Yeah, he tends to blow in and out with the storms. He's a good man, Audrey, I'm not saying he isn't, but he isn't very reliable. He's had enough of Nathan, and he'll leave again. He'll come back eventually, though. He always does."

"How long's he been doing this?" I asked, curious to learn more of Haven's resident pirate king.

"Let's see. He left here when he was 16 for about 3 months, came back, left again at 18 and came back when he was…" Margie paused, calculating dates. "Hmm, it'd be what, 22?" she asked Vince.

"24" Dave supplied, walking up to Vince. "Duke was 24 the last time he came to Haven. I remember it because that was the year that Jeff got that big article in the paper in New York about working in that restaurant. Duke came in to see me at the paper and gave me a copy of the article. Told me the food was to die for."

"He only stayed a year that time. He only came back into port, ohh, about 2 months before you came to Haven, Audrey," Vince added, taking up the thread.

"I thought he lived here all his life?" I asked, very confused. If he'd been gone for that long, though, it would explain why Duke wanted me to confirm if the troubles were back and didn't seem to know what had been going on in town when I had first gotten here.

"I've called Maine home all my life, but that doesn't mean I've lived in Haven that whole time. Maine's the largest New England state. There's a lot to it outside Haven." Duke chose that moment to enter the conversation, and I know I was blushing at being caught asking about his past.

"Fear not, Audrey. I may leave, but I always end up back here somehow." Duke looked off into the distance, and sipped a beer.

"It's been nearly 10 years since you've been back. According to Margie, each time you leave you take more time to come back, if you leave now it'll be 20 years until I see you," I teased. That thought did upset me, though. I liked Duke, and didn't like to think that I may be part of the reason he would leave. I know I was part of the reason he and Nathan were at odds.

Duke smiled at me, a gentle quirk of the lips rather than his megawatt grin. "I promise to come back before 20 years, Audrey. I just need to get out of town for a while." Duke smiled. "Margie, I'm glad you're here, and appreciate that you are watching Morgan for me while I work on Gerty, but kindly remember my personal life isn't part of yours?"

Margie nodded, "Sorry, Duke."

"It's ok. However when the radiant Officer Parker decides she wants to know me better, she can ask me herself." Duke bowed towards me. Margie, looking serious, nodded again.

"Well, Duke, I can't get the information from you. You don't talk to cops, remember?" I said playfully.

"True. I guess you'll have to stop being a cop sometime if you want to know," he replied, then took another sip of beer.

Dave, ever the inquiring mind, asked, "Are you really planning on leaving?"

Duke nodded. "I have to make a run down to Seabrook. I'll only be gone a couple of days. It'll give Nathan time to grieve the fact I've moved out of his house," Duke said, while watching Nathan approach the bar where we all stood.

"In your dreams, Duke. Are you sure you can't manage to disappear for another 10 years?" Nathan saluted Duke with his beer bottle and came to stand beside me.

"And leave Audrey here, alone, at your mercy? Perish the thought." Duke slid an arm casually around my waist, and I squirmed out of his grasp. I don't like being manhandled, especially when I was the center of a contest between Duke and Nathan. But if I hadn't suspected Duke did that just to piss Nathan off, I might have let him hold me.

Duke and Nathan had both cautioned me against revealing that I was Lucy Ripley, and both always used the name Audrey in public. Duke had noted darkly that Lucy wasn't popular with everyone in town. Nathan had been able to circumvent the investigation by the other Audrey Parker somehow. I wasn't sure how he did it, but she had disappeared. Vince and Dave had published an article about how the FBI couldn't believe it had two Audrey Parkers and had thought I was an imposter, generally confirming people's belief in the ineptness of the federal government.

Nathan was about to respond when Tracy motioned Duke over for a quick word. He nodded and paused beside Margie. "Margie, you're in charge until I get back." He left to see what Tracy needed. Margie looked shocked, and I gathered that was Duke's way of giving her the restaurant until he returned from Seabrook, rather than until he returned from his conversation with Tracy.

Small talk continued for a while but Vince, Dave, and Margie all drifted off after a short time to mingle with the Grey Gull's other guests. Nathan stayed a few more minutes until he, too drifted off to talk to Bobby and Hannah. I wondered what to make of the fact that Duke hadn't been here all of his life as I'd assumed, and wondered where he'd been in the intervening years.

I might have asked him except that every time he came over to me, or I tried to get to him, the crowd at the Gull (and particularly Nathan) seemed to conspire to keep us apart. At one point we were trying to carry on an eyeball conversation across the room (it seemed to be the closest we could get to one another and thankfully Duke was tall enough to see from almost anywhere on the main floor) and not succeeding very well. I decided to make my point to him by pointing at the mistletoe, then the clock. I figured that would get his attention and the expression on his face was well worth it.

Eventually everyone started counting down the seconds as the year fled. As each number was chanted, the level of excitement in the room grew. When we all finally reached an ebullient "One!" I found myself being kissed, at first gently and then more and more enthusiastically. Nathan's sea blue eyes smiled down at me and he leaned in to kiss me again. Over his shoulder I saw Duke. His expression never altered, but he abruptly changed course and tapped on Julia's shoulder, and kissed her. Nathan kissed me again, and when we both came up for air, Duke was nowhere in sight.


	2. Chapter 2

_Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits. ~Author Unknown _

Nathan:

January 1st, 2009

I woke up that morning to two wondrous things. The first was the memory of kissing Audrey last night. Holding her in my arms and tasting her mouth had been the highlight of my evening. Her warmth, the way her lips felt against mine, it reminded me I was human. I had wanted nothing more than to feel her lips against mine again. After the second kiss she had laughed and pushed away, saying that I couldn't get all the New Year's luck. She'd gone searching for Duke, but came back disappointed she hadn't found him. As for me, I was elated.

The mystery of where Duke was had been resolved at about 3am. His battered yellow truck sat, rusting and sullen, in my driveway. I'd known he'd been planning the trip out since I caught him talking to Bill about putting up his truck in Bill's barn, but I somehow thought it would conveniently be more than the "couple of days" Audrey told me he was expecting to be away last night. If it were "only a couple of days" then he would have just kept his truck parked at the marina. I didn't tell her that Seabrook was a day trip, and he could have been back here before nightfall if he left in the morning.

The door to the guestroom was firmly closed, and I went to bed assuming Duke was sulking. The next morning I awoke to find the truck gone, the room cleaned, and a note on my kitchen table with money for "rent." Duke Crocker had left, and wasn't planning to stay at this bed and breakfast establishment again. It was the second wondrous thing to find. I was surprised that he hadn't waited around to try to bait me this morning, but the curiosity factor did little to dampen my spirits at figuring out my hostile houseguest was gone for good.

I spent the first day of the new year cleaning the rest of my house, and paying the last of the old year's bills. It was nearly dinner time when Audrey stopped in with Chinese food. This time when I went to kiss her I guess I was too forward because she ducked away. We ate in companionable silence. Eventually she asked "Did you know Duke fixed his boat?"

"Nope." I continued merrily crunching something with a name that I couldn't hope to pronounce correctly.

"He did. I thought he was going to wait for Ryan to show up." She looked down, as if the shrimp in her dinner might have had insight as to our resident crook's mysterious ways.

I shrugged, and grabbed some more fried rice. "Audrey, Duke is Duke. It's not the first time he's said one thing and done another. Won't be the last."

"Do you think his repair will hold?" She looked up at me and I could see the concern that caused her to ask it. She and I would have very different feelings upon hearing that Cape Rouge sunk at sea and her captain's body was never recovered.

I chewed for a moment, and swallowed. "He worked for the metal works for a while when he was a teenager. I imagine he can weld his boat together as good as Ryan can. He just couldn't support the tanks on his injured shoulder before. To fix it he's got to go in the water and under the waterline." I shrugged. "Look at it this way, if he can go scuba diving, he's taken no permanent harm from the wendigo." How very sad.

Audrey nodded, and communed with her dinner again. "Harbormaster said Duke left early this morning."

Ah, this was the heart of the matter. "Didn't you tell me he was making a run down to Seabrook?"

"Without saying goodbye?" She looked up. "You know he saw you kissing me last night, don't you." She was angry, but more at herself than at me. I didn't know why. It wasn't like there were rules about who could kiss whom when. If Duke failed to be next to Audrey at the midnight, it wasn't my fault. The fact that he left like a sulking child didn't say much for his maturity level.

"Duke's like a bad penny or a stray cat, he always turns up." I let the comment about the kiss stand unanswered.

"Julia's gone, too. Pete was down by the shore trying to fish." She paused, obviously wondering about the sanity of anyone fishing in the ocean in winter. "He said that he thought he saw her get on Duke's boat."

The rat bastard was going to console himself with having seen Audrey and me kiss by shacking up with Julia and then breaking her heart. Probably trying to salve his ego by going after someone that had already been in love with him once. I hoped he would be gone for good this time. Still, I wasn't going to waste this opportunity.

"Duke is probably going to wine and dine Julia. What, are you jealous?" I asked teasing her. I did wonder if Duke even realized that he was driving a wedge further between himself and Audrey every time he went off with some other woman, rather than making her jealous. I wasn't going to inform him, if he didn't. I rather enjoyed having Audrey all to myself.

"No, Nathan, I'm worried. What if another storm comes through and sinks the boat." She stabbed one of the shrimp with her fork.

"Audrey, that storm was a once a decade event. We aren't like to see weather like that for a long time. Duke's an experienced sailor. I'm sure he'll be fine with whatever weather he finds," I said, trying to reassure her.

"I hope so," she said quietly.

"Tell you what, while Duke is romancing Julia at sea, let me show you some of the wonders of Maine. There is more to it than just Haven. We both have the vacation time." I smiled at her. Because of all of the zaniness of last year, we'd both rolled over nearly a month's worth of vacation time. Before the Chief died, he figured that since Audrey had basically used her FBI vacation time helping us, he'd refund it back to her. The end result was that both of us had much more vacation time than we'd ever get to use this year.

"So Duke mentioned last night. And where do you want to take me?" she asked, skeptical.

"Skiing, skating, down to the 'tourist traps' down south. We can even go over the border and watch them tip cows in New Hampshire. What do you say?"

Audrey laughed. "They don't actually tip cows, do they?"

"You won't know unless you come with me," I replied.

Audrey debated with herself for a long, quiet moment. "Ok."


	3. Chapter 3

_Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went. - John Updike_

Duke:

January 7th

I woke up this morning with an aching head and a heavy heart. Matchbox 20's "The Difference" had just ended and the hidden track after it started when I turned off my player. I don't know why I'd agreed to let Julia on board and take her to down to meet an old beau from her Darfur days in Florida when I was only planning on going one state south. She'd nagged me, whined at me, stowed away, and then gotten sea-sick. If I offered to turn around or head in to port, she got offended. There was no winning with her.

I did have pity on her for the sea sickness, having experienced it myself, but she thought I was trying to get in her pants and nearly bit my head off, angry that I also wasn't heaving my guts up on relatively calm seas. I left her to stew at the rail after that. I tried to convince myself that it was worth it to get out of Maine. Thankfully, Mr. Youkisama was where he was supposed to be in Seabrook and I was able to make my delivery while Julia was sleeping off the initial phase of sea sickness in my room.

It had taken a couple of days, but we'd gotten all the way down to the middle of Florida, to some little coastal town where I had to pay exorbitant amounts to get a slip for the night at the marina. I told her that she could fly back if she preferred, and that I would loan her the money for a ticket, but she had somehow managed to lose her driver's license, thus couldn't get on the plane. This was the point where I wanted to throttle her. I agreed to spend an extra day down there and take her back up the coast against my better judgment.

She called her old boyfriend and they went out and I sunned myself on my boat, happy to be on the ocean, complaining passenger gone, have the temperature be above 40 degrees, and Morgan on my lap. Buddha was correct, the simplest things are the most beautiful. I did garner some strange looks though for wearing shorts and a T-shirt without a coat. Floridians don't know what cold is. They should try a balmy spring day in Maine where it can be 20 degrees on a good day.

Julia eventually came back with fresh oranges, and some paper bags from the local market, which she promptly squirreled away in my refrigerator. She threw me an orange and then accused me of being a show off when I peeled the skin off it in one piece. OK, she might have been right about being a show off. However, a genuine Florida orange deserves respect. It was way better than the ones sold in the local market back home. When the hell had I started thinking of Haven as home? Must be getting time to move on again, with or without Audrey. Probably without. She'd want to stay behind and help the Troubled.

Julia cooked dinner that night, steak and potatoes grilled outside, as a thank you for getting her to Florida. She claimed the steak was for Morgan, and the potatoes were for me, but I decided my karma was good enough Buddha wouldn't mind me eating the steak. After all, I had brought Julia all the way down here, and it wasn't like I killed the cow. Best not let good steak go to waste.

The next morning we set off once more to the great white north. The first day had been fine, but the ones after that went south quickly as we sailed further north. We got to Delaware before she told me I was the devil and my boat was hell. This time when I offered, she got off the boat. Somehow she'd now found her lost license, which had ended up under my bed. What the hell it was doing there I doubt I will ever know. I certainly didn't put it there, and Julia had slept on the couch in the galley to be close to a porthole when the urge to chum for fish hit. She rented a car and drove back to Maine. I spent the night in Delaware, not looking forward to heading back into the frigid northern cold, nor of seeing Nathan and Audrey. I knew I should have spoken to Audrey before I left but I was angry at Nathan who had seen me and kissed her possessively on New Year's and I didn't want to take it out on her.

Also, truth be told, I was feeling too confined. First it had been the stay on Carpenter's Knot from the ice storm, then staying with Nathan. There were too many people around. Virtually no one visited me on my boat, and those that did I could easily deny if I so chose. Living in town was a different matter. It was a constant reminder that I was persona non grata to most people in Haven. At best I was the troubled child of the town whore, at worst a maniacal criminal out to steal Grandma's silver spoons and murder her in her bed.

I never liked to stay one place for too long. Especially Haven. There were too many people here that felt I was no better than I ought to be and that because of my family history, I was inherently scum. Yankee honesty is not a virtue when you are the one they are turned against. I had some defenders in town, the Chief, Eleanor, the McShaws, but most of the town didn't like me on principle. My family and I didn't go back 7 generations, we weren't native, and we were trouble-makers. When I left the last time, I hadn't intended to ever come back.

I might have spent the rest of my life running from Haven until Dr. Carr called. I must have been possessed when I gave her my cell number. She thought I'd like to make the arrangements for my uncles, who had passed. Somehow, I'd never gotten around to leaving this time. First it was settling their estate, then it was Gerty having a breakdown, preventing me from leaving port, then it was Audrey and suddenly I didn't want to leave port. That is, I didn't want to leave until I was up close and personal with the townspeople (and Nathan) for a week straight.

Now I was staring at Haven, not wanting to enter the harbor again. Still, the whole damn trip had taken 7 days, and it was time I went in to face the music. I at least owed Audrey an apology for leaving like that. I sighed as I felt the smooth surface of Gerty's wheel under my hands. She bucked a little, but then settled and started steadily making her way into the harbor. The steady thrum of her engines soothed me, a quiet white noise to drown out all of my thoughts and feelings. They had sounded good, and she was quick to make her way through the lanes, though she resented being tied to the dock as she always did. Can't say I blamed her, I didn't want to be tied either.

I disembarked and paid my respects to the harbormaster as well as my docking fees. Then I went grocery shopping at Edith's small store. It amused me that she insisted I keep my hands in sight at all times. I'd swiped an apple from her when I was 8. Now it was more of a joke between us. I gave her one of the oranges Julia had given me down in Florida. Edith was an old spinster, and she had no trouble telling anyone what she thought of them, which is probably why she hadn't married. It was fun as hell to be around the old lady when she was drunk. I remember her once telling me that the Chief was a "wuss" because he wouldn't walk barefoot across the snow to get a scarf she'd lost in a snowstorm.

Groceries in hand, I went to Rosemary's and picked up some cupcakes and whoopee pies. I thought that Audrey might like to try whoopee pies. I doubted that she would turn down chocolate cake and marshmallow frosting. Rosemary glared at me the entire time I was in her store, and gave me my change like I'd left some sort of indelible stain on her person just by handing her my payment. Rosemary wasn't nearly as entertaining as Edith.

I left Rosemary and decided to visit Audrey at the station to drop off the cupcakes and whoopee pies. I was surprised when Stan told me Audrey and Nathan had gone on vacation together. They'd gone inland to do skiing, and were going to head south and west to New Hampshire then swing back up the coast. They'd be back in 2 days.

Ole Nate didn't look gift horses in the mouth, nor let moss grow on him, I'd give him that. Leave him alone with Audrey for a week and he found a way to get her out of town and alone. I thanked Stan for the information and meandered back over to the bed and breakfast where both Audrey and Julia were staying. I slipped a note under Audrey's door, inviting her to dinner at a time, date, and place of her choosing. I stopped in to check on Julia, who looked surprised to see me. She reiterated that Nathan and Audrey were gone for the rest of the week.

Having struck out with Audrey and ascertained Julia survived the long drive, I went back to my boat and began fixing dinner. I still had the steak leftovers that Julia made, and decided to use them to make chili. There was no sense in letting the meat go bad. It was hot, just the way I liked it.

Unfortunately, about an hour after I finished it, I could feel that something was wrong. I was having trouble breathing, and I was getting lightheaded. I tried to control my breathing as I searched for my epi-pen. The last time I had an allergic reaction like this was when I ate the zucchini bread when I was 13 and collapsed in front of the whole school. Since then I'd been careful of making sure I didn't get close to the tasteless vegetable. I was at a loss as to how zukes ended up in chili I made, but it must have happened somehow. A few gasping moments of searching and I found the pen, and jammed it into my thigh. I stayed there for a few seconds, expecting the symptoms to ease, but they got worse. I was getting numb now, and breathing was getting even harder. I lurched to the phone to call Julia, gasping out that my epi-pen hadn't worked.

I crashed to the deck, and focused on continuing to breathe. An eternity later, Julia was there with a man. He reached out to touch my face. I saw the tattoo on his forearm and my own death.


	4. Chapter 4

_The tender friendships one gives up, on parting, leave their bite on the heart, but also a curious feeling of a treasure somewhere buried. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry_

Nathan:

January 10th

The trip had been good for both of us. It was nice to remember what normal was. Audrey had taken to skiing with the fervor of the newly converted. She still snowplowed down the mountains with her face more than her skis, but she was improving in her winter sport of choice. She hadn't been as happy with skating claiming it was boring falling on your butt constantly. I hadn't heard the word "Duke" in 3 days. When we drove into town though, we had to pass by the harbor and we both saw Cape Rouge in the harbor. That started her off on the pirate again. I sourly wondered if she talked about me in his presence as much as she talked about him in mine. Still, up until today, the break from Haven and Duke had been enjoyable. We'd even taken a couple extra days beyond the week originally planned.

I drove her to the bed and breakfast she lived in. Paul Thatcher, who ran Over the Way, normally didn't entertain his guests as long as he'd had Audrey, but he didn't seem to care that Audrey never left after she booked her rooms. When we got to her door, she opened it and let herself in, then invited me in. I ran into her as she stooped to pick up a piece of paper off the floor.

After we disentangled ourselves, I sat in one of the chairs, happy to be off the road for a while. Audrey read the note and smiled. I quirked an eyebrow at her in a silent question.

"Duke formally invites me up to a private dinner party at my time and place of choosing as a sincere apology for leaving without saying goodbye." Audrey smiled, happy that Duke had stopped by. I can't say I was as impressed. It must have shown on my face, because some of her elation left her face. "Why do you two not like each other, Nathan? I mean, you two seem to care about each other, and the next moment you are at each other's throats. I don't understand it." She looked sad that we weren't all best friends, the Hardy Boys to her Nancy Drew.

"Duke and I have a long history, Audrey. It's not nice and it's not pretty. He's a bastard and so am I. There's a lot of water under our bridge and it's eroded the pylons to nothing." I got up and looked out the window. "It's not that I hate him, but damn, he can sure make it hard to like him."

Audrey nodded, then came up behind me and hugged me. "Pylons can be fixed and bridges rebuilt," she said quietly.

I shrugged. "I don't really want to talk about Duke, Audrey."

She let it go, but I could still see it bothered her. She began unpacking.

"So Portsmouth and Kittery have been fighting over that shipyard for years?" she asked.

"Yeah, seems like it's an issue every couple of years. It's funny though, when there's any rumor that the shipyard's going to be closed, it doesn't matter who owns it, it matters that it's kept open. Then both states move heaven and hell to keep the shipyard open. Once the funding's secured though, they go back to arguing about who owns it." I shook my head, ruefully over the epic battle of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. "Next thing they'll argue about is who owns that bridge that needs to be fixed that Route 1's on, but that's more about who has to pay to fix it."

There was a knock on the door and Audrey went to answer it. Julia Carr didn't wait to be invited in before making her way to sit in the chair I vacated. She was pale and wan, like she'd been sick for a few days. "You ok, Julia?" I asked, concerned.

She shook her head, and looked at Audrey and me, and then began crying. Audrey walked up to her, hugging her. "What's the matter, Julia? Is it your mom?" Dr. Eleanor Carr had died a few months ago and Julia had stayed in town to try to fill her mother's shoes. Julia was still trying to sort through the feelings her mother's death evoked, and I fear that Julia and Eleanor's last words hadn't been kind. Audrey had become one of Julia's close friends.

Julia shook her head, and visibly brought herself back under control, taking a couple of deep breaths. She looked up at us, and it was obvious she had something she needed to tell us, but that she couldn't find the words. I walked over and told her gently "It'll be OK, Julia, whatever's wrong, we can fix it."

"No, not that this time, Nathan." She looked down again, wringing her tissue into horrible origami slugs. "Duke died. He had a major allergic reaction to one of Rosemary's whoopee pies, we think. She used a recipe with some zucchini in it – it was supposed to keep the chocolate cake moist. He must not have known and eaten it. He, he called me and told me that he'd dosed himself with epinephrine, but that it wasn't working. I came over and couldn't revive him."

Audrey put a hand up to her face, her eyes wide with shock. She sat heavily on the bed with a quiet "no."

"I called the ambulance and worked on him all the way to the hospital and we tried everything. We were able to bring him back once, but we couldn't stabilize the heart rhythm and never could restart his breathing. Eventually his heart stopped again and we couldn't restart it again. That was three days ago."

I was numb. My friend, my enemy was dead. Killed by stupid vegetable he had been careful about avoiding. Hell, he and Jeff used to laugh about their respective food allergies, claiming that Bill would one day serve up fried zucchini in sesame oil to off both of them. They both found out they were allergic the same way on the same day, by eating something that violently disagreed with them. It had set off a food poisoning panic at the school bake sale. I know it had bothered Duke to know that Jeff had died as a result of an allergic reaction just off his boat, and I'd seen him at the pharmacy getting a new epi-pen and the lecture on how to use it. The McShaws and Duke had been close friends, and Duke's love of cooking had been from Jeff and Bill's adventures and misadventures with food (and perhaps a sense of self preservation after some of the wilder experiments).

Now he was gone and there was, surprisingly, a giant hole in my heart. I thought I would be glad that Duke was dead, but the reality was so much worse. "When is the funeral?" someone asked, and I honestly didn't know if it was Audrey or me myself.

"We held a small memorial service for him last night at the Gull. There were only a few of us; Vince, Dave, Edith, Pete, Margie, Tracy, and myself. We thought you'd be back yesterday." Julia was striving for a detached tone and succeeding in wooden. "The Rev wouldn't come out, said that Duke was hellspawn and he'd be damned before he blessed the bastard."

"Why would he do that?!" Audrey asked, trying not to cry. "Why?"

Julia sighed. "There was this rumor that started shortly after The Rev came to town that Duke was his son. The Rev didn't like it and didn't like Duke because of it."

"What about a funeral, Julia? He wanted to be buried at sea. At least, he did when he was a kid." I remembered the nights where we had macabre discussions about what to do with each other when we were dead. Duke wanted the sea and I wanted fire. The McShaws wanted a normal burial, but next to each other.

Julia pulled on all the down-easter reserve in her body to steel herself for what she said next. "We can't find him. I don't understand, I mean, I was in the ambulance with him when they took him to the hospital, but … they can't find his body now. They even called over to the other hospitals in the region, thinking maybe it, he was transferred in error. No one can find...We can't lay him to rest." She trailed off.

Audrey looked at Julia, a desperate hope in her face. "Could he have revived? I mean, I have heard stories where people sometimes spontaneously …"

Julia shook her head, holding up a clutched tissue, forcing herself to be calm for Audrey's sake. "I saw him in the morgue myself. The drawers, they can't be opened from the inside. We think, Noah and Stan and I, we think that maybe his body was stolen from the hospital. We can't find who took it. We can't find it. "

Audrey got up and hugged Julia, and the two clung together. I continued to stare out of the window, hating how my world had just crashed down around me.

_A/N: And here's a fine place to leave this story as a hurricane and a cold front join forces on my doorstep just in time to go to work tomorrow. The longest I've lived without power was 6.5 days. Let's try not to top that, please Mother Nature? I learned to appreciate hot water the last time. _


	5. Chapter 5

_Do not stand at my grave and weep, _ _I am not there; I do not sleep. _ _I am a thousand winds that blow, _ _I am the diamond glints on snow, _ _I am the sun on ripened grain, _ _I am the gentle autumn rain. _ _When you awaken in the morning's hush _ _I am the swift uplifting rush _ _Of quiet birds in circling flight. _ _I am the soft star-shine at night. _ _Do not stand at my grave and cry, _ _I am not there; I did not die. _ -Mary Elizabeth Frye

Eleanor

January 11th

Being dead's a funny thing. I could walk the streets of Haven all day and no one saw me. I was still mortified at how I died. Really, to have fallen down the stairs and broken my neck when I was startled. Of all the stupid ways to go. I much would have preferred dying of a heart attack in extreme old age. What worried me is that I hadn't seen the light, seen my dead parents, my late husband, or pretty much seen anything that they claim you are supposed to find on the other side. The night I died, I'd yelled at the Chief that I wasn't dead, despite my body being in front of both of us. He didn't hear me. I'd gone to find Julia, hoping for some mystical connection to my daughter that would allow her to see me, and found out she couldn't. She ignored me dead as much as she'd ignored me alive.

So now I was stuck living my life as a dead woman. It wasn't much different than living it as a live one. It wasn't like I could walk through walls and enter people's houses willy-nilly. I could slip in if someone left a door open too long. That's how I found out much more about Madam Hilsef's sex life than I ever needed to know. Haven's psychic appeared to have decided laying the cards wasn't as lucrative as laying the customers. I always thought she was a phony, but now I knew she was a very flexible phony. I gathered from her activities that she didn't "sense" my ghostly presence.

Cats seemed to see me, and like me. I went down to the fish market one day and a whole herd of them came up to me. I couldn't do much with cats, though by that time I was getting squirrelly enough to try to spell out a message with them. Too bad the cats had different ideas. They left when one of the workers put down food for them. Dogs didn't like me as much, but put up with me. I tried to evaluate my options and resources and came up with nothing. I asked God why the hell he'd done this to me, and he didn't answer, either.

Failing to find heaven, hell, or purgatory, and with little hope of ever attaining one of them, I set about people watching. I saw all sorts of interesting things. Bill's face as his wife told him there'd be another McShaw, Dave cowering from Max, and Vince then threaten him. Privately, I'd put my money on Vince, if I could still bet. I watched Nathan grieve the loss of Garland, and watched him protect Audrey from the other Audrey, though she'd be might upset if she'd known what he done. I watched Duke struggle with love leashing him to the town he wanted to hate. And I watched my daughter.

Something had seemed off about Julia ever since she got back to town. I knew she was a grown woman, and I'd tried to give her space. It had never been enough in life, and then she always blamed me for her fear or failures. But she was even more bitter when she came back, as if I was to blame from some horrible thing she lived through in the middle-east. Her soul had become darker, and it was like she didn't know how to deal with her anger. When she took Duke out the cemetery, I knew there'd be trouble. I saw something twisted and dark in her enjoy Duke's fear when he realized there were a lot of us that had the tattoo.

My daughter and I had a tumultuous relationship. I was a strong woman, and I'd raised Julia to be one as well. However, she didn't always appreciate my methods, nor did I appreciate her attitude. Still, I'd been proud of her, and had told her so. After she returned from her Doctors Without Borders stint, she was different. It was like we couldn't speak to each other at all anymore. We may have had our differences, but we'd always been able to air them. Since she'd gotten back, she'd shut me out. Now I watched a stranger perform a subtle dance, manipulating everyone she touched. I feared for my friends' lives.

I could see how it would work out now, with her maneuvering starting. Julia would be protected by Nathan, Haven's white knight, while she manipulated everyone else. She'd cozy up to Audrey and she'd start dropping more pieces of information to make Audrey feel like the whole town was working against her. Duke, who never needed help when it came to distrusting people, had already been given information that there were lots of us with the tattoo, and I saw sadly that he'd begun listing out names of folks to watch. I don't know if I should be happy he had added Julia to the list or not. The boy did need to learn to trust, and I thought Audrey'd teach him, but she was on his list of suspects too.

I knew that the cycle was coming full circle again. Garland and I were no longer able to help them, and it was killing me, or would be if I wasn't already dead. I was worried that Dave and Vince wouldn't be able to agree long enough to ensure that Audrey, Nathan, and Duke worked as a team to unravel the mystery that is Haven. I was afraid that all would be lost if they couldn't pull together. I wondered if they realized what they fought for.

Right then there was nothing I could do about it but watch it all unfold.


	6. Chapter 6

_Saying goodbye? Why is it sad? Makes us remember the good times we've had... You're in my heart, so until then.. gonna laugh... gonna cry... it's time for saying goodbye. - Muppets Ensemble._

Audrey:

January 10th

Julia had fled after she'd stopped crying. I should have gone after her to make sure she was ok, but I couldn't muster up the strength. The bright-eyed scoundrel who saved my life and then made me coffee was gone. I would never be able to repay him for all the help that he'd given me. I'd never get a chance to apologize for the times I'd hurt him, and I knew that I had hurt him. It seemed just when it was most important to him for me to acknowledge something he'd done, I'd screw it up. The way he'd looked at me after I'd flippantly inquired if he'd gotten me a pony on my birthday was the first time I'd seen a crack in the armor around his heart, and it hurt me when he'd sealed it shut.

Duke could piss me off with the best of them. I was still angry at him for not telling me that he was the boy in the picture, but I could understand it, sort of. He'd needed time to decide who I was, and if I was trustworthy. Everything with Duke was a damned test, and if you got one question wrong, he slipped farther away. It was rather like how Julia had described her mother. Still, I had wanted to earn Duke's trust, not only because I was rapidly becoming sure he knew more of what was going on than he was telling me, but because he was my friend. My instincts told me that when Duke decided that you were someone worthy of his friendship, he would remain your friend until the bitter end. I'd seen that in the way he interacted with Nathan. There was no doubt in my mind that Duke liked to bicker with Nathan, but underneath all that, Duke still had wanted to be Nathan's friend, if only Nathan would have let him.

As reality continued to set in, I felt my mind wandering to try to deny it, or at least find something practical I could do to deal with it. Morgan, Duke's orange cat would need looking after. The cat hated Nathan since an unfortunate incident involving being stepped on by Duke and misapplying feline blame. Marge probably had taken him back in. I wanted to call her and ask, or go down to the Cape Rouge and see if Morgan was still there. Duke loved that cat…had loved that cat.

Nathan moved further into the room, the noise of his shoes scuffing over the carpet temporarily distracting me. His face had a hollowness to it that wasn't there this morning. He closed his eyes when he'd heard one of the gulls laughing outside, evidence that he could feel pain without my touch. His face was slowly reshaping itself into a granite block, hiding behind Stoic Maine Man tm. "You OK, Nathan?" I asked, fearing the answer.

"No." That just about summed it up for both of us.

_A/N: Sorry for the short chapter. Next one will be longer (though not by much). I'm hoping to get more writing time over Thanksgiving weekend so perhaps there will be more chapters flowing faster. Please note that the above statement doesn't imply any guarantee. However neoxphile wants me to wrap this kitten up so we can work on our next project. Neoxphile has written some fics in the X-Files universe that tie into our Haven universe. If your bored with me not posting, check them out. They are good!_


	7. Chapter 7

_We ware what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. - Buddha_

Duke:

I became a Buddhist because I was raised Baptist, and I knew that the life I had led would lead me to hell. Buddhism was so much better: I preferred the karmic cycles and getting eternal second chances. Ok, so I was still working on the whole not eating meat thing, but I was better than I had been and only ate it once or twice a week. I tried to even out my Karmic debts by helping those that were truly in need, like Tracy. I knew the 4 noble truths and occasionally took strides to incorporate them into my life. I expected to die and be reborn. I did not expect to die and be stuck in my OWN DAMN BODY!

I'd felt the Tattooed Man touch my face, and it was the last thing I'd felt. Everything else was numb at that point, probably because of the oxygen deprivation. He'd felt my neck, and told Julia my heart had stopped. What the fuck! If I wasn't breathing and my heart had stopped, I should be exiting stage left. Instead, I was staring at Julia, who called an ambulance, and then began CPR. How freakish was that, to know she was pressing her mouth to mine in a way I might have otherwise enjoyed, once. I couldn't feel it. I didn't feel it when she began chest compressions, but I heard it when she cracked my ribs doing it.

Tattoo got up, dusted off his knees, and picked up a whoopee pie from the container on the counter and proceeded to inhale it in one gulp. I heard her tell the tattooed man to leave, and heard his feet hit the dock as he left running. In the distance I could hear the ambulance. Around me things started to take on the hazy aspect of a dream.

Julia called out the porthole to the paramedics when they arrived, and they clattered into my stateroom. Words that had no meaning to me were tossed back and forth like the shuttlecock at a badminton game. The paramedics took over CPR, one keeping up the chest compressions while the other charged paddles on a defib unit. I wondered hysterically if I could have felt it if Audrey touched me. I was going to die without her ever knowing how sorry I was to have left like I did. Shit! I couldn't die now, Nathan had promised to kill me. I tried, how I tried to fight. I recognized that my body quivered when they put on the paddles, but I didn't feel the charge.

It must have made some difference because suddenly one of the paramedics calmly stated that they had a rhythm. I was rolled onto a backboard and a neck brace was locked around my throat. The two paramedics and Julia heaved me up off the floor and for a moment I was offended at the effort it took. I wasn't that heavy.

I was loaded into the back of the ambulance and Julia and one of the paramedics continued to inject me with things, based on Julia's description of my severe allergic reaction. I could hear the other on the radio throwing more medical terms around. I thought it may have been beginning to work, because I started to feel a little bit better, but then I died again. Julia continued CPR while the paddles were brought out again. The ride passed in a nightmare of watching and hearing people work on my body, but failing to get it to respond. Things were stuffed down my throat, trying to force air into lungs that wouldn't expand. Hands touched me everywhere, and I didn't feel them. I had sudden sympathy for Nathan. Crap, if this is what he lived with day after day, no wonder he was psycho. I'd lived with it for less than nine minutes and hated every millisecond of it.

We arrived at the hospital and the nightmare didn't end. I remember seeing the walls and the ceiling as they rolled me down the corridor. The paramedics left and were replaced with doctors and nurses. I was worked on for several more minutes before they gave up. The nurse called out that my time of death was 7:42 pm. Julia stood by my head, looking down at me, and closed my eyes. I panicked and screamed but no sound issued forth. I fought to run, but didn't move. I tried to escape every way I knew how, but all avenues were blocked. I was solidly trapped. Things went very hazy after that, but then, panicking is not known to make people rational. The last cogent thought I had for a while was wondering who would take care of Morgan?

The next time I could remember thinking somewhat coherently, I was having my eyes pried open by Tattoo. I could hear voices in the distance, but he shushed them. He forced my jaws to open, then put some sort of paste in my mouth. He held my nose and jaws shut with one hand and rubbed my throat with the other. Someone muttered about reflexes, and Tattoo grinned and said "Aint' it grand how they work even after death?" What the hell? Wasn't it enough I was dead? What was he going to do, kill me again?

He took a paint pot and a small brush, and began painting something on me. It could have been the entirety of Mary had a Little Lamb for all I knew. He was joined by Julia, who stuck a finger in the paint pot and marked my chest, right above my heart, four times. Tattoo then began doodling where she had marked me, and I was guessing the damned labyrinth tattoo was being painted on me. I remembered with horror that a labyrinth had been used in some cultures to confuse the dead, prevent them from coming back to haunt the living. If I could have spoken I would have assured them that if they would just let me go I'd do my best to haunt someone else's asses. At this point I would have done anything just to die completely, even if it meant dissolving into nothingness. I was afraid of being trapped in a rotting body, unable to move, staring at the same thing forever until my eyes rotted out of my head, and listening to the wind until my eardrums decayed.

The two of them chanted in some language that was vaguely like Spanish, vaguely like Swahili, and vaguely like Latin and held hands after they were done using me as a human canvas. I kept thinking I understood some words, and they mostly weren't happy ones. Enslave, Chain, Kill, Protect, and then my full name, but with the wrong middle name. The rite seemed to take forever, and things kept getting weirder and weirder. I saw the people in Tattoo's tattoo reach down to the people on my chest, who stood up. Their arms lengthened disproportionately, and linked, and my blood rose up to bind me to Tattoo. A similar ribbon of blood joined the painted people who were now dancing on my chest to Julia. The candles that were at the foot of my coffin leaned over and joined in a latticework pattern with what must have been the flames of candles at my head. From the center of the pattern I saw a wendigo's head form and it reached down to claw open my chest. It removed my heart and ate it. The world dissolved around me in an explosion of light and color and sound.

The next time I pulled my scattered wits together I seriously wondered why I bothered. The ritual was repeated, but this time instead of a wendigo eating my heart, it climaxed with a harpy pulling my liver from my body. She also ate it, but by then I didn't care. I mean, it wasn't like I was using it or was planning on using it ever again. Must've lost my ability to care when the wendigo ate my heart. I let myself drift on the colors, and from the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Eleanor standing in the corner. She looked upset. That pretty much confirmed to me that I had not escaped hell by converting to Buddhism. I just hoped she was visiting and not stuck here too.

The rite was performed one more time. This time an Ifrit from burned out my bones. I didn't care. I was dead.


	8. Chapter 8

_I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved. - Soren Kierkegaard_

Eleanor:

People watching could be very boring. Stakeouts looked exciting on TV, but in reality they were long and dull. I'd taken to following Vince and Dave around for a while as a distraction, having grown bored with watching Julia. No, not bored, just pained. I couldn't do anything for my daughter in this state, and I was still convinced she wasn't alone in her body. It hurt too much to watch her.

Vince and Dave were trying to work with Garland's body and get him to pull himself together. Literally. I absently wondered if superglue could have helped with that. I didn't sense Garland, but then I didn't sense any other ghosts, so it may be he was just stuck in his rock form. I was so intrigued by them trying to repair Garland, and being amazed at Vince's sheer power, that I'd managed to put off watching my daughter. I abruptly remembered when I followed Vince and Dave out to the shore. They were concerned they might have been missing a piece of Garland. I stopped when I saw Duke's boat was back in the harbor. I figured, hell, I might as well strike out with everyone and decided to confirm that Duke couldn't see me either. I avoided going before because of all the legends about water dissolving ghosts, but really, what did I have to lose now?

I abandoned Vince and Dave and boarded the Cape Rouge. She was empty, but then Duke might have been out and about. Generally he stayed away from town, though, keeping to the outskirts of Haven unless he needed supplies. I decided to wait for him to come back. I mean, if Nathan had gone numb again, what's to say Duke hadn't been Troubled, too, and his affliction was to see spirits? That boy could lie like a rug when it was in his best interest to do so. I'd long been suspicious that he would turn out be troubled too, but never saw him do anything like the rest of the afflicted.

Eventually I saw Audrey and Nathan approach the Cape Rouge. Audrey was hunched in on herself as they scanned the deck of old boat, looking like she'd been crying. Nathan was doing a fine impression of the Old Man of the Mountain, just after he fell off the mountain in NH. Audrey was held protectively under one of his arms, close to his chest. He rested his chin on her head when they stopped in the middle of the deck.

"I can't believe he left her to me. I mean, I don't even know what to do with a boat," Audrey spoke into Nathan's chest.

Nathan lifted her chin up with one of his fingers. "You don't have to keep her, you know. I can help you sell her. I know a couple of fishermen that would use her. She'd be taken care of, and she'd be useful. He would have wanted that, I think."

I got a very bad feeling about this.

"No, I don't want to sell her, not yet, anyway. It would be like abandoning him." Tears danced down her cheeks, catching the lights like diamonds before falling to be absorbed by her clothing. It was like she'd been crying so long she no longer even knew she was doing it.

"Well, if you change your mind, let me know. Come one, let's take a look around. Make sure she's ok." Nathan held her close for one more moment, then put an arm around her waist and walked into Duke's living quarters.

The dust danced in the air, and I saw Duke's bosun's whistle, and a bear claw talisman on the floor in the kitchen area. Nathan picked both of them up and looped the chains around his neck. Bags and wrappers littered the floor, and I recognized them as being the refuse of a medical emergency. Nathan must have smelled the dirty dishes in the sink because he drew back with a look of repulsion on his face. I'm guessing it must have smelled bad. I couldn't smell it myself so guess there was some advantage to being dead.

Audrey looked through the living space, trailing her hand against books and furniture. She picked up a copy of Siddhartha from the nightstand by Duke's bed. It had been shelved next to a battered copy of the Dhammapada and The Art of War. Lying out as though it was still being read was The Art of Peace. Audrey held the book close to her heart, and I wondered if she'd given it to Duke.

Nathan cleaned up the mess on the floor, and ran some water into the sink, then began to scrub the dishes. After he'd cleaned up the modest pile, he set them on the drying rack and joined Audrey in the bedroom. "We should look at the rest of her. We can come back here when we're done."

He then began to take her around Cape Rouge, pointing out important things like the emergency shut off for the engines, bilge pumps, and giving a simple explanation of the complex mechanisms that would allow someone to navigate the ship. When they found the chart room, Audrey laughed. "I guess I won't have an excuse to get lost, not with this many maps." She and Nathan stared at all the charts the Duke had collected over the years. That boy must have had a map of every body of water anyone had ever bothered to create a map of in that room.

Nathan ended the tour, where it started, back in Duke's living quarters. Both he and Audrey sat on the couch. "I can't believe he's dead. I keep hearing people on the dock, and think he'll come bouncing through the door. I keep looking for Duke, and he's not here. That's just so… wrong," she said, leaning against Nathan.

"Yeah." Nathan was monosyllabic at its best. I knew that the fewer words he said, the more he felt, though. He wrapped an arm around her and gently kissed her forehead. "I miss him, too."

"Any word on where his body is?" Audrey asked softly, as though she feared offending the ship or disturbing ghosts.

"No. Near as they can tell, it was stolen between 8:30 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. It's not like they have a rash of body thefts, so the morgue was pretty much empty all night. They are questioning the folks with key card access and who had logged as being in the morgue that night, but so far, there's been no luck." Nathan sighed heavily.

My godson was dead and his body was stolen? I was shocked. I knew that Duke had frequently been in trouble, some of it morbidly serious, but I couldn't imagine his enemies stealing his body.

Morgan chirped, and appeared from some hidey-hole, probably in one of the bookcases. Audrey's head whipped sideways at the sound. "Hey buddy, where have you been? People have been looking all over for you."

Morgan walked over to Audrey, jumping up on the couch and curling up next to her. She reached down and scratched behind his ears, but he didn't answer with a rumbling purr like he normally did. Nathan got up and searched briefly under the cabinets until he found a bag of cat food. He filled a small bowl and after a moment filled another one that he had washed earlier with water. He set them down beside the couch, but Morgan didn't move. The cat didn't respond even when Nathan offered to pet him, which historically had been greeted with a hiss and an arched back.

"I miss him too, boy," Audrey muttered to the cat.

Nathan continued to stare at the orange cat that had wrecked so much havoc in Duke's life, and who the smuggler had loved without reservation. "We'll need to take him to the vet if he doesn't eat." It appeared as though the word "vet" was a motivator. After a few more pets from Audrey, Morgan got down and ate a few mouthfuls of food. Having staved off the vet visit, he curled up again next to Audrey, ignoring Nathan completely.

It felt intensely indecent to watch Nathan and Audrey mourn Duke. I wondered what could have possessed anyone to steal Duke's body. I looked the boat again, and saw a book in one of Duke's overflowing bookcases and came to a horrifying realization. I could think of a terrifying reason to kill Duke and steal his body. It wouldn't be outside her experiences by much… It was a long and anxious night I had waiting for Audrey and Nathan to leave.

I ran to find Julia as soon as Nathan left the next morning. It was still dark when I saw her get into a small 7' boat. The outboard chugged to life after two quick pulls, and the boat headed out to one of the outlying islands, just beyond the protection of the deep harbor. Julia turned off the motor when she got close to the island, and jumped out. She heaved the boat ashore onto the rocky beach, then crunched up into the tree line. She ducked beneath the branches of the pines and headed to the eastern side of the island, facing the sunrise. The sun rose over the water, and skipped merrily across the waves.

Julia took a lower path when the island started to slope upwards, and came across a small cave system in the cliff face. I entered the cave close on her heels, determined to stay with her. I'd played in these caves when I was a girl, chasing Vaughn and Garland. The tunnels went back quite a ways, and had some areas that were only accessible during low tide. I sincerely hoped we weren't heading there, and was relieved when she'd veered away from that part of the cave.

We came to a small round room. A coffin had been set on an old mortician's cooling table. Duke was in the coffin, his eyes open and sightless. The pupils were blown; only a slight ring of brown was visible at the edges of the whites. All over his body sigils had been placed, and over his heart there was the Labyrinth painted. His chest rose and fell with jagged little breaths. Julia lit the candles at the foot and at the head of the coffin. Noah Jameson came out of the shadows and forced Duke to swallow some sort of home-made pill. Julia led a prayer in some foreign language and Duke reacted lethargically. Whatever they had given him had nearly fully subdued him.

If I had to guess, I'd guess that Julia was trying to perform some voodoo magic, or trying to convince Duke she was performing it. When he had completely stopped reacting and lay still, I saw her slice open healing wounds on her own and Noah's hands, and then open matching wounds on Duke's hands. Julia and Noah bound Duke's hands to theirs, cut to cut, and began chanting in Latin. This I recognized. She was trying to bind Duke's spirit to her and to Noah through shared blood.

When I squinted I could see the strong threads that already tied Duke to them, connecting their hands to his heart. As she completed the ritual I saw the threads strengthen and become rope. I stood there and cried for my godson, and for my daughter. She was trying to kill Duke's spirit and turn him into a mindless puppet, probably to use against the Troubled. She was binding him by blood and his part of his name, and it would be very, very hard to break the bond.

I didn't think there was anything I could do to stop it. I couldn't even interact with them. Then Duke's head turned, and I saw his pupils contract slightly. "Duke, can you see me?" I asked, hoping for some recognition, anything. He fled back to whatever depths of his mind he was inhabiting. When they were done, done with the binding, and had untied their hands I tried to grab the bond and snap it, but it was too strong. I could feel it, but I couldn't break it. Well, at least I found one thing I could interact with, not that it did me much good.


	9. Chapter 9

_Every life has a measure of sorrow, and sometimes this is what awakens us – Steven Tyler_

Nathan:

January 15th

The thing that annoyed me most was that The Rev's puppet chief, Noah, wouldn't let Audrey and me investigate who had stolen Duke's body. He claimed that we were too close to the case, and that we'd lost our objectivity. It made me want to punch Noah. However, punching your boss wasn't usually a good way to stay employed. Instead for the past few days Audrey and I had found three mental patients from the Freddie, dealt with a domestic violence case involving slapping someone with a haddock, found a lobster poacher, and arrested one streaker in Edith's grocery store.

Audrey was grieving hard for Duke. It hadn't helped finding the cupcakes on Cape Rouge with her name on them. We'd gone over when Brett Mailor, one of the local attorneys, had stopped by to tell her that Duke's will had been rewritten about six weeks ago. She'd inherit the Cape Rouge and his cat once all the dust settled. Duke's truck was to go to Bill McShaw. Margie and Janice would get the establishments that they were currently running for Duke. I'd get a safety deposit key to a box in town. Brett had no idea what was in it. I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

Audrey and I had taken to trying to find out as much as we could about Duke's final days, searching for the reason he was dead. We found the murderous confections on Duke's counter, on another counter and far away from where the left over dishes and cutlery from the night had indicated he'd prepared his dinner on the day of his death. The whoopee pie container had 5 pies in it and had room for 6. I still couldn't figure out why Duke would have even eaten a whoopee pie. I didn't think he'd liked them very much. He would down an entire stand full of apple crisp, eat strawberry shortcake until he was sick, and scarf any other dessert containing fresh fruit, but I can't say that I'd ever seen him do more than nibble on chocolate cake.

At least the cucumber allergy hadn't been serious, I mused. The man sneezed and had watery eyes every time he'd walked by the Gleasons's farm, but he enjoyed eating the cucumbers they grew and pickles they made. The cucumber flowers could make him break out in a rash, which we found out only after he'd undergone fairly extensive allergy testing after the Zucchini And Sesame Seed Bread Incident. Cucumbers themselves didn't bother him overly much if he ate them. Pickles didn't bother him at all. Eleanor used to ask him if he wanted to commit suicide by vegetable, fearing he'd suddenly develop a severe reaction. Not that any of that mattered now.

Audrey and I had scoured Cape Rouge for the past two days looking for another answer but hadn't been able to find any. It looked like Duke just had had a bad run of luck. Still, it didn't seem quite right to me, but I had no say in it courtesy of Noah. I leaned back in my swivel chair and sighed, twisting it back and forth, causing the ceiling tiles to dance.

Audrey had taken a leave after yesterday. She had been forced to do it, having broken her ankle on ice after chasing down someone that had tried to carjack a 60-year-old woman. I admired her for not giving up until she got the guy, but it had damaged her ankle and now she had to stay off of it for the better part of a month. Since she would have gone nuts at the station or driving the rest of us to the Freddy (I wasn't sure which had better odds), I convinced Noah to have her go out on medical leave.

I knew she hadn't slept much since she found out Duke was dead. Last night she'd stayed up all night reading sections of Duke's books, and trying to comfort Morgan, though I suspect he was the one doing the most comforting. I stayed to keep her company. At one point Jess called from Quebec to offer her condolences, and to ask if I wanted her to come down. I told her no. Privately I thought she'd lost that right when she left me. In the very early hours of the morning Audrey finally had succumbed to exhaustion and I'd left her sleeping on Duke's couch, under a worn afghan my mother had made for him.

The sun was just starting to peer at the town over the trees when I came in to the station to push paper. I certainly wasn't able to read it to do anything useful with it. Damn the bastard. He was even capable of pissing me off while dead. I'd spent more time wondering why he died and regretting that he'd had to die alone. I still could remember the awful day when we both thought he was going to die an old man, and how he didn't want to die alone. Mostly I spent my time trying to avoid everyone. There was no reason to take out my anger on Stan or the other officers. The one person I really wanted to yell for being irresponsible and leaving us alone at wouldn't be able to hear me.

Eventually Stan drew the short straw and had to tell me that I was needed to go help another inhabitant of our "little" town. was called out to help with Mr. Rableth's problem. He claimed to have been having a issue with his house repeatedly disappearing. I'd gone over with the intention to inquire if he'd like a free ride to the Freddie when his house disappeared in front of me. I could see the fixtures and the wiring, but the wood and sheet-rock were all missing, leaving the ghost of a skeleton made of pipes. Even the insulation was gone. It reminded me strongly of some of the anatomy models I'd seen of the human circulatory system. I wanted to call Audrey because she would have loved this, but I didn't want to wake her if she was still asleep.

After a few minutes of questions, it became clear that the house only disappeared in the morning, the floors and walls were intact, if just invisible. The old man had been very grateful for that as he had been reading the paper in the bathroom the first time the house disappeared. Probably the best place for him to have been at the time, because I know I'd need new pants if the floor suddenly disappeared. The house usually reappeared around quarter of 4. I realized it mimicked the elementary school schedule and asked if there were any children nearby. Sure enough Mr. Rableth had a six-year-old neighbor named Timmy.

Timmy was out playing on the swing in his yard. I watched him for a few moments, enjoying the wide smile and wind tousled hair as he pumped his legs to try to get higher and higher until he could achieve that most sought after kid trick: swinging over the bar. It wasn't Timmy's day and he slowed down when he noticed me watching him. Slowly I approached him and introduced myself. When I talked to Timmy, he revealed that thought it would be cool to be transparent. He'd not yet turned himself transparent, but he did enjoy seeing Mr. Rableth's house disappear as he got on the school bus.

I privately agreed with him, seeing the house disappear had been neat, but I was an adult and asked him to please stop turning Mr. Rableth's house invisible because it was upsetting Mr. Rableth. Timmy was shocked and sorry. He ran over to the old man, apologizing to Mr. Rableth and promised never to turn his house invisible again. I spontaneous thought that I needed to make sure that Duke and Timmy never met. An icy knife plunged into my heart as soon as I realized that I didn't need to worry about the two ever coming into contact.

When I drove down from Juniper Heights, where Timmy and Mr. Rableth lived, I saw Noah set out to sea on a small boat. He appeared to be heading to one of the deserted islands that formed the harbor barrier. There wasn't much out there, scrub pine and rocks. I can't say why I thought odd he should head out. He could have been fishing but I didn't see any poles in the boat. He should have been on duty. I decided to follow him to find out what would take him out there. After all, he might need backup, or so I tried to convince myself. The truer reason was that I might be able to find out more about the Rev and his plans. If I couldn't do anything for Duke, at least I could help Audrey.

I borrowed Duke's dinghy, still moored out behind the Gray Gull. The outboard coughed and caught on the first pull. Eventually I realized I was following Noah out to Deer Run Island. When I pulled the dinghy up on shore, I noticed there'd been a lot of activity with people going back and forth. There were deep marks on the gravel shore where boats had been hauled up above the tide lines. The way the stones were turned indicated that they'd been disturbed recently, and there was what seemed to be a game trail heading away from the beach. Odd given that despite it's name, there population of the island was normally harbor seals and migratory birds, with the occasional migratory fisherman or smuggler.

I was so busy studying the tracks to figure out what was going on that I didn't notice Noah approach me. It was somewhat startling to be pistol-whipped.


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: Thank you to those that pointed out I accidentally posted chapter 9 twice. This is the real chapter 10.  
_

_I am not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens. - Woody Allen._

Duke:

Being dead was both boring and scary. I don't recommend it to anyone. Maybe Buddha hadn't yet replaced me on the karmic wheel because he was trying to decide if I should still be human. Maybe I needed my soul released in some rite. Whatever the problem was, it wasn't getting solved by lying here, but I didn't seem to be able to do anything else. Perhaps this was a last attempt for me to reach true enlightenment. Sadly, I felt as though I was too attached to the material world for that to occur anytime soon. Perhaps it would change once I saw my fingers fall off. How long did decomposition normally take, anyway?

Noah and Julia came periodically and did weird things to my body, but no more monsters consumed parts of it. Usually they ensured my eyes were closed so I had no clue what the hell was going on. I was becoming really detached at this point, and didn't care much. It was hard to fill the blank space that was my mind with myself anymore. I wondered if this would be what it would be like to meditate so deeply that you forgot yourself, but only briefly, and the thought of my consciousness, my sentience being separate didn't really matter to me anymore.

My eyes were closed and then opened and I found my coffin had been moved. The sky was as fractured as the pieces of my mind, broken up by crazed black cracks. Very slowly I realized I was staring at tree branches, and that I was no longer in the cave. I looked down. Yep, if your body was a temple, I still stuck in the body of doom. Would Dr. Jones come and rescue me? I'd even settle for Dr. Carr, who was actually gnawing on one of the ropes that tied me to Julia. I wanted to wave to her, but I couldn't move my fingers.

I could hear Julia and Noah talking about something. Troubles were back, and it was their sovereign duty to protect humanity, blah, blah, blah. I wondered why the trees needed to know this particular bit of information. Julia then started saying that the Afflicted would be their own downfall. God had given to her the perfect tool to pacify the Troubles. Nope, never should have told her. Oh well. It's not like she can make me do anything.

Suddenly she called my name. She still had the middle name wrong. I felt something tugging on my soul. I could ignore that. I was starting to get down with cosmic oneness.

"Lemuel Ephus Crocker, Rise!" she and Noah commanded in concert. SHIT! That I could not ignore. It felt like I was being wrenched up by one of Gerty's winches. I could only imagine fishhooks buried in my heart that were suddenly pulled tight, forcing me to follow. Somehow my corpse was on its feet, and I had nothing to do with it.

In front of me Nathan was tied to a tree, looking particularly pissed off. Yeah, Nathan, if I could die right, I would, but I somehow managed to mess it up too. Call an exorcist.

Please.

"Send this Damned One back to Hell! Open up the earth and let it swallow him, Lemuel Ephus Crocker!" I could feel my muscles spasm and something in my mind straining, but no cracks tore open the earth. Sorry, Julia, that was someone else's Trouble, not mine. My body was trying to tear itself to pieces to do her bidding though, and the strain on my mind was giving me a hellacious headache. Just because I couldn't didn't mean I wasn't going to kill myself trying for my master. I didn't want to, I didn't want to hurt Nathan, but I couldn't seem to stop myself.

Eleanor was trying to pull apart the ropes, but upon seeing me answer to my master's calls, she stopped fighting. Instead she took the rope carefully into her hand and seemed to be trying to push it. The pushing motion seemed to loosen up the three thick braids that made the rope whole, and she stuck in a hand. It disappeared. She began sinking into the rope, and I could feel her in the bond like a warm current. She was trying to smother me, to stop me from killing Nathan. I welcomed the attempt.

"What's wrong, Julia? I thought you said that he could do this!" Noah shouted, waving his hands angrily in front of my face.

"I don't understand, he should be able to! Nathan said he thought he was the one that had caused the cracks all over town, and had collapsed the lighthouse!" Julia turned to me, and she got a crazed look to her. Her eyes had the white all the way around them, and she was baring her teeth, like a dog about to bite. "Lemuel Ephus Crocker, I command you to send Nathan Thadeus Wournos into the earth!"

Now that I could do, and without killing anyone. Have to love overbearing ritual phrasing. I sublimated Nathan, who looked very shocked to see his body disappear in a white mist, and deposited him into the smuggler's caves 2 miles north of Haven. Score one for me, I got rid of Nathan, and he was about a ¼ mile into the earth. Command obeyed, sort of.

The awful pressure in my head and heart eased immediately when Nathan's ropes slumped to the base of the tree he'd been tied to. I celebrated by falling over and wondering what the hell was with Julia and my name. No one had actually called me Lemuel except my mother and Uncle Ephraim. Eh, it's not like it mattered that much anyway. There was a couple of inches of snow on the ground. Hmm… Snow should be cold. It wasn't.

Noah walked over. "That appeared to work better than the cracks. He completely dissolved. I suggest you practice with a few trees so that you learn your puppets limits, though, before we use him to remove more of the Afflicted. I'm going back to the mainland." He stomped out of my line of sight.

"Lemuel Ephus Crocker, Rise!" My corpse lurched to its feet again.

_A/N: And this was about as far as I got into the story before life exploded as it is wont to do. When it finally calmed down a little and I could write more, neoxphile told me she had this story idea... and we wrote Untangling. She has another couple of ideas now... but I told her I wanted to finish this story. Somehow, I have until the middle of next month go get a chapter out to her... O.o_

_As winter settles in around us in the Northern Hemisphere and Summer garlands her warmth to folks in the Southern Hemisphere, I wish you all the best during whatever holidays you may be celebrating, or even if you aren't celebrating any at all. Or as Duke might quote - _

_Through the working of Great Compassion in their hearts,_

_May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness,_

_May all be free from sorrow and the causes of sorrow;_

_May all never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless;_

_May all come to peace without too much attachment and too much aversion,_

_And live believing in the equality of all beings._

_Namu Amida Butsu._


	11. Chapter 11

_Love will find a way through paths wolves fear to prey. - Lord Byron_

Eleanor:

I frantically tried to break the bond between Duke and Julia but failed again and again. When the gruesome twosome brought Duke out of the caves I knew that they were going to do something to test their ability to hold him. Nathan had been tied to a tree and had reacted violently to seeing Duke's naked body in the coffin where Noah and Julia had been keeping it. Duke wasn't in good shape, he was thin from days without eating. Blood had been used to paint the last set of sigils on his body, and it was brown and flaking. Lack of oxygen had turned his lips and fingers to a faint shade of purple and he continuously gasped in jerking breaths, his shoulders heaving and his neck distending to try to get air into his lungs. Shivers from fever and cold caused more convulsions. Worst of all was the vacant look in the man's eyes. Duke wasn't even aware of what was going on, no doubt due to the chemical cocktails he'd been given.

Duke was ordered to rise to his feet and the first time he was able to ignore it, but the power of both Julia and Noah calling him dragged him up. I absently noted Julia was using the wrong name, which was probably giving Duke a little breathing space as some awareness seemed to seep back into his face. I was glad that we'd hidden the true names of each child. The awareness didn't last long against the order to create a crack in the earth and kill Nathan with it.

It looked like every muscle went rigid in Duke's body in response to that command. In my hands, I felt the rope become more taut. Suddenly I remembered Chinese Finger Traps we used to play with when we were small: the way out of them was to push in. I tried pushing the rope binding Julia and Duke, and it separated enough that I could slide my fingers between the strands. I felt them meld into the bond. I merged myself with the bond in the spaces between the strands. I crashed against Duke's mind and soul, and felt them tearing him to pieces. I couldn't let him kill Nathan, not the boy who had been his friend. I gently tried to end Duke's suffering, and I felt him welcome it.

As suddenly as a tide shift, a new command was given. Whatever it was, it made Duke elated. I felt his power stir, and then the war between his mind and soul end abruptly. In the recoil I felt his relief at not harming Nathan, and then we crashed into the ground.

I heard through Duke's ears a comment that Julia needed to practice controlling Duke, and I realized that much more "practice" would destroy him. Even now, I could feel the consciousness that was Duke begin to scatter and drift. The repeated use of his name was keeping him mostly together, but it was causing him a lot of pain each time it was called. I felt the shockwaves of it as he was ordered to rise again. His mind was bound to break if this kept up; it didn't feel too sound, if I was any judge.

I flowed to the other end of the bond, and confronted Julia. To my horror, I had been right. Some dark shape was riding her. So I called on my fury at this thing that was controlling my daughter and fought it. It was caught off guard at having its mind invaded through the bond of what it felt was a Zombie. That was likely my only saving grace. It was so old and so arrogantly confident that nothing could harm it, that I was able to force it from my daughter's body.

However it was too late for Julia. No spark of her essence remained. I prayed that she'd found heaven before her soul had been destroyed by that thing. It also wasn't too good for Duke, as it raced back down through the bond and into his body. I followed after it, and just felt it pass through Duke's mind. Thankfully it didn't stop to take up residence. I guess if felt Duke was too valuable a commodity to be used as a mount.

It continued to flee down the only path left open to it, the blood bond to Noah. I felt the echo as Noah's mind dying and the shock wave of it drove me back through the blood ties and towards the lifeless body of my daughter.

Suddenly I felt pulled down, like when my husband used to laughingly pull me into bed. I felt something enclose me. When I raised my arm, I jumped because Julia's arm moved with mine. I felt strange, and after a moment I thought breathing might be a really good idea. It certainly felt good. Mother Nature, it is said abhors a vacuum, and decided to fill Julia's body with me. Well now, this certainly was interesting.

I would have liked to get used to having a body again, especially as it was below freezing outside. I would have liked to have had a moment to check Duke over and ascertain what exactly his condition was, which right now didn't look very good. Most of all I would have liked to stop and mourn my daughter.

I didn't have the time for any of these things. I didn't know how far out Noah had gotten before the demon had destroyed his mind. I imagine he would be coming back quickly. I could hope that it was convinced that I was dead, but while I may have startled it, I doubted it would take long to recover.

Taking a deep breath I thought about how I could get myself and Duke away from this place as quickly as possible. I didn't want to do what I was about to, but I didn't seem much choice. I just hoped he was strong enough. "Lemuiel Ephraim Crocker, take us home."

Duke was weaving on his feet, and I was amazed he hadn't collapsed yet. He looked at me with blank eyes and I prayed that I hadn't destroyed him by putting yet another command on him. It was the last thought that I had while standing under the pine trees. I took a deep breath as I watched Duke's body disappear and reminded myself that I trusted Duke.

Just when I was convinced that I wouldn't have anything left and that I'd just become the first person to be reborn and immediately destroy her new body, my kitchen solidified around us. I do mean my kitchen. Funky Mexican farmhouse chic greeted me. I reached out and grabbed Duke right before he went down for the count. I laid him down on the floor, and quickly took his vitals. The good news was that he was still breathing and his heart was still beating. The bad news was that his color was heading to plum.

Julia hadn't spent a lifetime hauling patients or corpses around and I cursed her soundly for it. I cursed Doctors Without Borders for taking my daughter somewhere where her spirit had been destroyed by whatever was currently running around in Noah's body. I wanted to curse out Duke for being heavy, but had long since taught myself not to curse the patients that were barely alive. The guilt load if they died was the hardest burden one could bear.

Thankfully the trip was a short one to the guest room/exam room that had last seen use when that boy lost his face. Certain locals that didn't have medical insurance, or who for various reasons needed more... discretion in their care were cared for here. Duke had once before stayed here for a month when recovering from pneumonia. We wouldn't have that luxury this time. I heaved him up on the bed, and then connected up the oxygen lines. I could have ordered him to walk, and he would have, even unconscious. But I didn't want to stress him anymore than he already was. As it was, it would be a minor miracle if he survived this little excursion into the twilight zone, and a major one if he came out of it sane.

I grabbed an oxygen mask and started the gas flowing. Almost immediately his gasping stopped, and he began to breathe much more normally. Also heartening was that his color began to get better. I pinched the skin at his wrist and noticed it wasn't lying back down. He was suffering from dehydration for sure. I searched under the cabinets and found the ringers solution. First I started an IV, then taped it down. Remembering the fun I had with Duke and IVs in the past, I taped it down some more. Then I covered him in thermal blankets.

I sat down on the chair and decided to take a couple of minutes to gather my thoughts. I had some time. Duke must have known at some level that I, and not Julia, was here. If he had thought I was Julia, he would have brought us to Over the Way. With luck, Noah would start hunting us there. The bad news was that it wouldn't take that thing long to come here. I needed to get Duke and myself out of here before it came, and to do that I needed help. Of the two people I immediately thought to call, I had no idea where either of them was.

_A/N: Eh, not as much writing as I hoped has been done this vacation. Updates will still be slow. Sorry guys. BTW, if you missed it before, part 10 has been fixed. Thanks again to those that noted the error._


	12. Chapter 12

_Sorrow shared is sorrow halved. Joy shared is joy doubled. Unknown._

Audrey:

I woke up on Duke's couch. I must have fallen asleep. My partner had left me my pain meds and a glass of water…water which Morgan was now drinking. I had no idea how Duke lived with this cat. Nathan had unclogged the sink last night and pulled out a giant orange clump of fur. There was another one in the shower. If there was water involved, Morgan was right there. Case in point, the voyeur in the shower with me when I finally got in there myself. I had cleared out some of Duke's things, but hadn't really moved in. Of course, I didn't have that much to move in. Still, the bulk of what I owned was still at Over the Way.

I jumped when my phone rang. It was Julia.

"Hi, Julia."

"Hi, Audrey. Listen, can you come over? I need your help. And I need you to bring some of Duke's clothes, if you still have them?"

I was surprised to say the least. Think that she was hoping to be charitable, I supposed that Julia must have come across someone in town that needed help and was rather tall. It wasn't like Duke would need them anymore. I rifled through Duke's drawers and grabbed a couple of shirts, pants, and pairs of shorts. After a couple of moments I grabbed what appeared to be a relatively new set of shoes from his closet. I continued to talk to Julia while I ransacked Duke's wardrobe.

"Uh, sure. Anything in particular that you want? I mean, you can always come over if you want and grab anything you want. I mean, I don't think Duke would mind." He wouldn't mind anything anymore, I thought glumly.

"Could you grab some sweats if he has any?"

Has? She must have misspoke. I went back two drawers and grabbed two pairs of sweat pants. "You got pants, but no shirts. Duke only had sweaters."

"I'll take whatever you can get me and be grateful. Listen, can you get over here right away? I really do need you. I'll explain everything when you get here."

Julia sounded worried, and that raised my alarms. I'd just lost one friend, and I'd no intention of losing another.

"Is everything ok? Do you need me to call in back up?" I suddenly had visions of a junkie taking Julia hostage to get drugs.

"Yes and no. Yes there is trouble, and you getting here sooner rather than later would be appreciated, but no, I don't need the kind of help that the police can provide. I just need you, or you and Nathan if you know where he is, and Duke's clothes. Oh, and Duke's keys. The ones that he keeps in his right-side nightstand."

Ooooooooookay. This was getting odder and odder. Maybe Julia was borrowing Duke's truck back from Bill McShaw. Because a naked, tall, thin junkie wanted a ride somewhere. And why would Julia have known where the keys were? She hadn't been out to the docks since before Duke had passed. I searched for Duke's keys. There was a set in there, but the keyring was an innocuous 4 leaf clover key ring. Duke's truck keyring had a pirate flag but rather than a skull and crossbones, it was a lobster over crossed claws.

"No dice on the truck keys. They aren't here."

"I'm not looking for the Land Rover's keys. There should be a keyring with a 4 leaf clover. I need those keys."

I blinked. Things continued to be weird. "Uh, yeah. Those are there. I'll bring them over."

"Good. Can you stop by Ju... my apartment and grab the bag that is in the closet? It just has clothes and such. I think I'll be out of town for a few days."

"Julia, are you ok? You know that if you need some place to stay, you can stay here. I won't tell anyone but Nathan, and we'll keep you safe. You don't have run."

The laughter on the end of the line sounded just this side of mad. "I have to get out of Haven. It's not safe here. Hiding out on Duke's boat would not be safe, trust me. Nathan should get out too if you can find him. You'll understand when you get over here. Please, just hurry. There isn't much time."

"Where's here if it isn't Over the Way?"

"My mom's."

"Ok. Let me just find a bag for this stuff, and go home to grab your stuff and I'll be over. I'll see you in about half an hour."

I hung up the phone and explored Duke's closet. I found a large duffel and packed the clothes in it along with the shoes. I zipped it up and hobbled quickly up onto the deck, cursing the fact that the Cape Rouge was not designed for people on crutches. I managed to get onto the docks and in my sedan without mishap. Then I needed to go and do it again, this time remembering to bring Morgan in his cat carrier. If Julia was that spooked, I wasn't leaving her alone. I also couldn't leave Morgan alone for who knew how long.

Thankfully it was my left ankle that was broken, and I could drive. It took about 20 minutes to drive over and grab the bag from Julia's room. Then I went into my room and packed enough clothes for a week.

I was just zipping up my bag when Nathan called. Nathan's annoyance was quite clear. "Parker. I need you to come out to the smuggler's caves."

"Nathan, Julia just called me and she wants me to give her a bunch of Duke's stuff and a key he had to something." The smuggler's caves were a good 20 minutes from Eleanor's.

"Don't go. Something's not right. I don't know what. Just get over here. I need help." Nathan was slurring the words slightly. I frowned. Please God, let nothing serious have happened to him too.

"Fine, I just need to tell Julia I'll be late." I hung up the phone. It was nice to be wanted, but to be wanted at the same time on opposite ends of town wasn't so nice. Still, something didn't sound right with Nathan and I was worried Julia. They both needed me, but Julia had said she wasn't in immediate danger. Nathan would be able to help her if there was someone there preventing her from speaking freely.

I put all the bags in the trunk and dropped into the seat. I then drove out to the small park where the smuggler's caves were. The caves were a series of connecting tunnels that ran for a couple of miles into town. Local legend said that pirates had once used these caves and if you went far enough in, you would be able to find treasure. Mostly what I found whenever I was called out to them was teenagers making out.

Nathan was standing on the beach near the main entrance to the cave. There was blood in his hair. The bronco was nowhere in sight. He started walking to the car when he saw me park it.

"Nathan, what happened?"

He gave me a bleary-eyed look. "I don't really know. I remember going out on a call at..." He paused, trying to think about the call. "Juniper Heights. Timmy was making Mr. Rableth's house transparent. I saw something. I remember thinking it was odd. I remember being upset but I don't remember why." He scrunched his forehead, then shook his head. "Then I woke up here. Rather, I woke up in the caves and walked out. Then I called you."

I looked him up and down. He seemed lucid, and he wasn't appearing like he was having any serious difficulty. However, I was a little worried about what would make Nathan upset enough that he remembered it happening, but couldn't remember the details. Hopefully Julia would be able to help him. She had warned me that he should get out of Haven too. Maybe she knew what Nathan had seen out here and couldn't remember.

Nathan folded himself into my sedan. I hoped that he would be enough of a comfort to Julia that we could stop her from running from whatever she was so obviously afraid of. While I shifted into drive, I quickly filled in Nathan on the rather odd set of requests and he wrinkled his brow again. It seemed that he was clueless as to what she could be doing too. He brought out Stoic Maine Man Mode for the warning that he needed to get out of Haven. Unfortunately I could see that it had the exact opposite effect of what Julia intended. It tickled his stubborn streak.

"I'm not leaving Haven, Audrey."

"I'm not asking you to, but if Julia is going, I'm going with her. She sounded genuinely upset about something. I can't imagine what happened to her to cause her to think she had to leave. She sounded rattled."

"I rather you didn't." Nathan stared at me.

"Why?" I would have thought he would have been urging me to get Julia out of danger, perceived or real.

"I don't think I trust her." Nathan looked down at his hands. "I don't know why. She's just different since she got back from Darfur." He shrugged, then gave me a wry grin. "Maybe it was because she disliked Duke so much when she used to hang on his every word. I don't know. Something's not right with her."

Crap.

Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap.

"Well, she's my friend and I'm not abandoning her." I spared Nathan a glance as we flew down the road to Eleanor's house. Morgan politely provided a siren as we tore through town.

"I'm not asking you to. I just want you to be careful around her." Nathan continued to stare at his hands, which where resting in his lap.

We pulled into Eleanor's driveway. Nathan didn't have his gun on him, but he grabbed the can of pepper spray he knew I kept in my glove compartment. My eyes widened.

"It's for the tall, thin, junkie that's holding Julia hostage." Nathan grinned at me.

We entered the house.

_A/N: Chapters will still be slow in coming. Sorry guys, I upgraded the memory and got an SSD and my computer decided that now it won't boot correctly, and is in love with me passing through the BIOS to get to Windows. This is being posted with a borrowed comp while I figure out what is going wrong._


	13. Chapter 13

_A moment's contradiction and the bickering's begun, mothers after daughters and father's on their sons... But you never leave a love so rare, you never leave a love so strong. Remember that the life we share is nothing but a song. - Nothing but a Song - Great Big Sea_

Nathan:

Eleanor's house had been kept in decent repair. Duke had been over here occasionally cleaning up the yard, clearing the walkways, and doing the general maintenance work on the property for Julia. Actually, he'd probably was really doing it for Eleanor still since she had been his godmother. Julia had claimed she was going to sell the property and must have finally contacted someone because I saw a Tradewinds realty sign swinging in the breeze.

We entered the house, and I shouldered in front of Audrey. If some guy was going to come after her, he was going to have to get through me first. Duke could have told them that I would have been a miserable opponent. Hard to stop someone that can't feel you beating on him.

We weren't jumped. Instead I heard the quiet noise of the door sliding shut deeper in the house. I was guessing they were in Eleanor's old private practice guest room. We moved forward, deeper into the house and through the kitchen. Julia was there washing her hands in the sink.

She looked up as she heard Audrey's crutches hit the floor. "Nathan, you're bleeding!" she paused, and then looked behind me. "Audrey, what happened? When did you break your leg?"

Audrey stopped and rocked back on her crutches, giving Julia a funny look. "I broke my ankle two days ago. You set it."

I stepped in between the two women. Something was nagging at me that this was not right. The very thought of Julia had filled me with unease and I still didn't know why. It had gotten infinitely worse when Audrey had said Julia called her. I would have traded looks with Audrey but it would have required taking my eyes off Julia.

Julia leaned back against the sink. She kept her hands on the counter. I applauded her decision to keep her hands in plain sight.

"Nathan, can I take a look at your head? You bleeding on my floor will not improve the grout." She made steady eye contact with me, deciding to completely avoid the fact that she had forgotten about setting Audrey's ankle.

"Will you remember it two days from now?" I didn't move and neither did she.

"I can't promise anything, but it seems likely." She nodded to the chair that was pulled out from the kitchen table and said in a voice that few men, my father included would dare disobey, "Sit."

I found myself moving before I was even aware of it. It wasn't a trouble. It was more like the instinctual response of a kid to a parent. I was surprised Julia had mastered it. I was even more surprised it worked so well. I sat.

Julia pulled a first aid kit out of a kitchen cabinet. She grabbed some gauze and walked up to the chair. She took a deep breath, and looked worried. I saw Audrey had moved quickly to the kitchen table. I saw that she had her weight on her good ankle and one crutch. Julia didn't seem as oblivious to this as she was pretending to be. Oddly, it reminded me of Eleanor when she pretended she didn't know that the troubles were back, and that people were dying by mysterious means.

She bent my head to the side and moved my hair around until she found the shallow cut. She cleaned out the wound and taped gauze to my head, or so I guessed. It's hard to be sure when you can't feel and couldn't see what she was doing. Audrey didn't look happy, though.

This had bought Julia about five minutes to compose herself and figure out how she was going to explain forgetting about setting Audrey's broken ankle. I heard her take another deep breath and she stunned us all with the question she asked.

"So Nathan, they give you that last MRI? You know the 10th one's free?"

Audrey was the one that broke the silence. Her voice was icy. "That's not funny, Julia. You shouldn't joke about it."

Julia came around and leaned against the counters in the kitchen. It was a familiar motion, but one Julia had never made in my sight. She wasn't comfortable in this house anymore. Suddenly I understood.

"How long have you been in her body, Eleanor?" I asked.

Eleanor/Julia nodded to me. "Oh, I'd say it'd make about 45 minutes now. I figure we have maybe another hour before Noah makes it back to Haven and comes here looking for me."

"The new chief of police?" I asked, wondering why Noah would be coming after Julia, or rather Eleanor.

Audrey growled, "What the hell is going on here?"

Julia/Eleanor looked at her, and there was incredible sadness in her eyes. "Audrey, I told you a long time ago. I can joke about anything. You need a sense of humor to survive a Maine winter. And remember, the first day we met, Nathan had been hit. It was lucky number 9 for the MRI. However he never went."

"How?" Audrey looked broken.

"I don't know, Audrey. I…It's bad, whatever is happening is very, very bad. Noah and Julia, they were caught up in something evil. Julia wasn't Julia. A demon was wearing her skin like a suit. They were trying..." Eleanor's words failed her. I could see the echo of Eleanor in all of Julia's movements. It was surreal. She blinked heavily, and stared at the floor for a moment or two.

"They were trying to kill Nathan. When I tried to stop them, I startled the demon. It took flight and ended up in Noah. We were able to get away but it's only a matter of time until he finds us. And I can't let that happen." She paused, and I saw the steel that was so familiar in Eleanor's demeanor show itself. "I won't let it happen."

Audrey looked at Julia, sorrow and misery written like a tragic novel all over her face. "Julia's dead?"

Eleanor met Audrey's stare without flinching. "Audrey, you never met my Julia. Whatever pretended to be Julia was a good actor, but it was never her. I can tell you honestly, it can't live with a human soul. It destroyed Noah when it attacked him."

I interjected, "Eleanor, how are you here?"

She turned to me. "Well Nathan, we can continue to play 20 questions until Noah gets here and you can get first hand answers, or you two can help me and we can get out of here and find out the theoretical answers. For now, will it suffice to say I don't know? And can I borrow your truck?"

I ground my teeth together. "I don't know where my truck _is_."

Eleanor closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "Where did you leave it?"

"If I knew, I would be able to tell you."

Eleanor took up the Olympic sport of teeth grinding. "Fine. Let me see if my truck is still in the garage." She got up and headed out to door.

Audrey cleared her throat. "Julia sold the truck. She thought it was too expensive to maintain. It's been a couple of months since it's been here."

"We'll need a truck. I'm not sure if the roads up to Cloverfield are plowed. We'll need something that can handle the snow and the ice that could be up there. I don't think Audrey's sedan is up to it." It was almost comical how Audrey's car had suddenly been pressed into service without her consent. Even Audrey seemed surprised and faintly annoyed at the presumption.

"You want to head up to Cloverfield?"

"You want to see a monster movie?"

Audrey and I spoke over each other. Eleanor's lips reluctantly turned up before she looked at Audrey. "Cloverfield is an estate Duke inherited from his uncles just before you came. It's far enough away from Haven it'll be safe, and most folks don't know that Duke inherited it. It wasn't like he had a close relationship with his uncles at the end."

I added, "It's about 200 miles into the back of nowhere. You have to go northwest out of Haven and keep going. You think that it'll be safe?"

Eleanor nodded. "Yes, I don't think anyone will think to find us there. And it's far away, so there should be less effect from the binding."

"Wait, what binding. What is going on?" Audrey looked really concerned at this point.

Eleanor walked out of the kitchen and down to the guest room. "If were just me, I probably wouldn't care. I mean, I've been dead once, I think I can handle that again if it comes up. But he deserves better."

"Now we come to the tall, thin junkie that was holding you hostage?" Audrey asked, trying to crack a smile.

Rueful laughter was Eleanor's only response. She slid the door back as though afraid it would break, or disturb whoever was on the other side of it. We could see as the door opened wider that the small bed was obviously occupied by a body. A rather rank one, at that. Only the dark tips of figure's hair was visible underneath the thermal blankets. The patient was propped up on their side, with their face away from the door. I could hear the hiss of an oxygen tank. Eleanor paused as she checked the IV containing some clear fluid that was running down a tube, presumably connected to the patient's arm. She was frowning.

I put out my arm to stop Audrey. We didn't know who the figure on the bed was, or what condition they were in other than smelly. Audrey punched me in the arm, and I held her back. As I struggled with her, Eleanor gently removed the pillows propping up the figure, then rolled the body so that the patient was flat on their back. It took until she pulled down the thermal blanket and turned the patient's face to us, that I understood completely. My gut clenched, or would have if I could feel anything. I couldn't figure out if the sudden adrenaline rush was caused by pain or hope.

A week's growth of patchy beard eloquently testified why Duke had gone with the goatee and mustache look. It sort of looked like his face had come off the worse for wear in a Nair fight. Duke never could grow in a proper beard. Underneath the hair his skin was pale. There were deep bruises under his eyes, which could be seen even through the dirt on his face.

Audrey took the moment of my shock to make a break for it. She ran up to Duke and firmly planted fingers at his throat to check his pulse. She started crying. I went over to her, intending to comfort her, confused only by why Eleanor would have tried to provide medical attention to a corpse. Someone must have taken some care that his body hadn't decayed, or perhaps they had embalmed it or something. I stood beside Duke's body, awash in conflicting emotions I thought I had dealt with a week ago. I wondered what Eleanor was doing with the medical equipment scattered around his body.

Audrey reached out to me and pulled my head down to Duke's chest. She kept it there until I heard it. It was quiet, but determined: Duke's heartbeat.

_A/N: So by now many of you know the reason why future updates to this may continue to be slow. Neoxphile though has done most of the work on Mortal Coil to this point._


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